Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Somalia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe

China

On November 7, Chinese media report­ed that for­mer pri­ma­ry school prin­ci­pal Zhang Longji was exe­cut­ed via lethal injec­tion for rap­ing five girls, age 8 – 12, and sex­u­al­ly molest­ing 17 girls, age 8 – 14. 

Sun Deshun, for­mer pres­i­dent of China CITIC Bank Corporation Limited, who was con­vict­ed of accept­ing $1 bil­lion yuan ($137 mil­lion) in bribes, was giv­en a sus­pend­ed death sen­tence by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan on November 10. If no new crimes are com­mit­ted dur­ing the two-year pro­ba­tion, then Mr. Sun’s sen­tence could be com­mut­ed to life with­out parole. 

According to the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), two Filipino nation­als con­vict­ed for drug-relat­ed offens­es in 2016 were exe­cut­ed in China on November 24. ​“While the Philippine gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to exhaust all pos­si­ble avenues to assist our over­seas nation­als, ulti­mate­ly it is the laws and sov­er­eign deci­sions of for­eign coun­tries, and not the Philippines, which will pre­vail in these cas­es” said the DFA. According to CNN, there are ​“92 Filipino death penal­ty cas­es in China in which all but one are drug-relat­ed;” 86 have been com­mut­ed to a fixed term, two have been reduced to life impris­on­ment, and two are pending appeal. 

Israel 

On November 20, the Parliament’s National Security Committee held a hear­ing regard­ing a bill that would make it eas­i­er for mil­i­tary courts to impose death sen­tences, which cur­rent­ly require a unan­i­mous deci­sion by three judges. The bill, ini­tial­ly pro­posed by mem­ber of Knesset, or par­lia­ment, Limor Son Har-Melech last March despite oppo­si­tion by the legal advi­sor to the gov­ern­ment Gali Baharav-Miara, would man­date the death penal­ty for those found guilty of ter­ror­ism, defined as ​“the pur­pose of harm­ing the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish peo­ple in its home­land.” The pro­pos­al was advanced by the par­ty of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and was met with emo­tion­al oppo­si­tion from rel­a­tives of hostages held by Hamas. ​“You know that this law will not pass now, that there are ways to do things with­out mak­ing media noise. Please, there is time to argue lat­er… Please, be with us on the side of life, not on the side of death. I beg you, remove this thing from the agen­da,” said Gil Dickmann, whose cousin was tak­en hostage on October 7. A state­ment from the Missing Families Forum crit­i­cized the tim­ing of the dis­cus­sion, stat­ing it ​“endan­gers the lives of our loved ones with­out pro­mot­ing any public purpose.” 

Iran 

As of November 30, Iran has car­ried out 707 exe­cu­tions for the first time in eight years, accord­ing to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IRHNGO). Since October 7, exe­cu­tions have spiked fur­ther with at least 176 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in just 54 days. Of the 707 exe­cu­tions in 2023, 390 were for drug-relat­ed offens­es and 238 for mur­der. One juve­nile, age 17, and 17 women were among those exe­cut­ed. At Ghezelhesar Prison, five group exe­cu­tions occurred in November. On the rise of exe­cu­tions, IRHNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam said, ​“The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and espe­cial­ly European coun­tries, must break their silence on the arbi­trary exe­cu­tion of more than three peo­ple per day by the Islamic Republic.” 

In the last month alone, four polit­i­cal pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed: ​“Women, Life, Freedom” pro­tes­tor Milad Zohrevand on November 23; 1980s polit­i­cal pris­on­er Ali Saber Motlagh on November 25; Kurdish-Sunni polit­i­cal pris­on­er Ayoub Karimi, after 14 years on death row, on November 29; and 2019 pro­tes­tor Kamran Rezaei on November 30. 

A November 20 let­ter by fel­low pris­on­er and cell­mate Ahmadreza Haeri, a lawyer and human rights activist, describes tor­ture endured by impris­oned Kurdish dis­si­dent rap­per Saman Yasin, con­firm­ing claims made in leaked audio ear­li­er in August. The let­ter specif­i­cal­ly describes how Mr. Yasin was sub­ject to a mock exe­cu­tion aimed at extract­ing con­fes­sions; Mr. Yasin was direct­ed to write his will, tak­en to prison gal­lows blind­fold­ed and hands tied, heard offi­cials explain how he should be hanged by a rope, and then told he was giv­en anoth­er chance for ​“coop­er­a­tion” after offi­cials received a phone call. Two days after the mock exe­cu­tion, a death sen­tence was imposed. Mr. Yasin’s appeal was accept­ed in December 2022 and a retri­al sched­uled for May has not occurred. Mr. Yasin con­tin­ues to await retri­al with­out access to lawyer. 

Malaysia

Following the pas­sage of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, which elim­i­nat­ed the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for 11 offens­es, in July, near­ly 1,000 pris­on­ers sen­tenced to death and life sen­tences sub­mit­ted appli­ca­tions for re-sen­tenc­ing. On November 14, sev­en death sen­tences imposed for drug-traf­fick­ing were com­mut­ed to life terms of 30 years in the first series of cas­es reviewed by the Federal Court. 

After the November 8 land­mark deci­sion in Australia’s High Court that indef­i­nite deten­tion for non-cit­i­zens was unlaw­ful, Malaysian nation­al Sirul Azhar Umar, who had been detained since 2015, was released with an elec­tron­ic ankle mon­i­tor. Mr. Sirul, who at the time was part of then-deputy prime min­is­ter, Najib Razak secu­ri­ty detail, was sen­tenced to death in Malaysia for the 2006 mur­der of Mongolian trans­la­tor Altantuya Shaariibuu; his co-defen­dant and supe­ri­or offi­cer Azilah Hadri is cur­rent­ly on death row. Salim Bashir, for­mer Malaysian bar pres­i­dent, told FreeMalaysiaToday that Mr. Sirul is eli­gi­ble to file for resen­tenc­ing review under new reforms but must do so in the next month and be present in court at the time of the hear­ing. In an exclu­sive inter­view with Al Jazeera, Mr. Sirul claims he’s inno­cent of the mur­der, though admits he was involved with kid­nap­ping and deliv­er­ing Ms. Shaariibuu to Mr. Hadri and claims he was paid hush mon­ey in 2016 to ​“to pro­tect … prime min­is­ter at that time, Mr. Najib.” When asked about return­ing to Malaysia, Mr. Sirul told Al Jazeera ​“I feel in dan­ger there because I’m aware that it’s tru­ly unsafe for me to return there … Whatever hap­pens, I want to build a life with my child here in Australia.” Australian law pre­vents the depor­ta­tion of a per­son to a coun­try where they face the death penalty. 

Philippines

There are efforts to rein­tro­duce the death penal­ty in the Philippines, which abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 2006. On December 4, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez reit­er­at­ed calls to pass House Bill (HB) No. 2459, which he ini­tial­ly intro­duced in 2022, stat­ing ​“If they put our com­pa­tri­ots to death for vio­la­tions con­nect­ed to ille­gal drugs, let us do the same to their nation­als, many of whom are caught man­u­fac­tur­ing, ped­dling or smug­gling drugs into the coun­try.” Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chair­per­son of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs called for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for drug-relat­ed crimes, as well, rein­tro­duc­ing House Bill 1543, which would rein­state the death penal­ty. ​“While we con­demn in no uncer­tain terms any and all ille­gal drug activ­i­ties, we urge the two hous­es of Congress to take a seri­ous look at the reim­po­si­tion of the death penal­ty most espe­cial­ly on drug-relat­ed offens­es,” said Rep. Barbers. ​“If oth­er coun­tries treat ille­gal drugs as a threat to their cit­i­zen­ry and the whole soci­ety, why are we so soft in treat­ing this men­ace in our own ter­ri­to­ry?” he added. 

Qatar 

On November 23, Qatar’s Court of First Instance accept­ed an appeal by eight Indian for­mer naval offi­cers who were sen­tenced to death on charges of espi­onage last month. ​“The ex-naval offi­cers in Qatar are veterans…and we are inter­est­ed in ensur­ing their wel­fare is tak­en care of. I want to reas­sure you that the Indian gov­ern­ment is putting all-out efforts to ensure that they are brought back,” said Indian Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar at a December 1 press con­fer­ence ahead of Navy Day. 

Somalia 

On November 1, five men were exe­cut­ed for mur­der in Hargeisa. According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, there have been 55 exe­cu­tions in Somalia this year. 

Vietnam

Following a four-day tri­al in Ho Chi Minh City, two South Korean for­mer police offi­cers and one Chinese nation­al were among 18 peo­ple con­vict­ed of traf­fick­ing over 216 kilo­grams of drugs. Of the 18, only three defen­dants were sen­tenced to life, while the oth­ers were sen­tenced to death, mark­ing the high­est num­ber of peo­ple to be sen­tenced to death at once by Ho Chi Minh’s City Family and Juvenile Court. 

According to infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed by The Vietnamese Magazine from state media reports, at least 189 peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death from January to October 3, 2023. Most death sen­tences this year were imposed for drug-relat­ed offens­es (77% or 145), while the remain­der were for mur­der (23% or 44). Of the 44 death sen­tences imposed for mur­der, 45% or 20 killed their roman­tic part­ners or fam­i­ly mem­bers. June expe­ri­enced the high­est num­ber of death sen­tences at 31, and Ho Chi Minh city is the region respon­si­ble for impos­ing the most death sen­tences at 34. 

Zimbabwe 

On November 15, Dzivarasekwa leg­is­la­tor Edwin Mushoriwa (Citizens Coalition for Change, CCC) intro­duced a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty in par­lia­ment with sup­port from sev­er­al mem­bers across the polit­i­cal spec­trum. ​“In our cul­ture, the death penal­ty was nev­er part of the Zimbabwean cul­ture. Our tra­di­tion­al jus­tice crim­i­nal sys­tem was based on com­pen­sa­tion and restora­tive jus­tice,” said Mushoriwa. In sup­port, Harare East leg­is­la­tor Allan Markham high­light­ed the rar­i­ty of the death penal­ty glob­al­ly, stat­ing ​“My issue is, inter­na­tion­al­ly when it comes to human rights, most coun­tries have moved away from the death penal­ty and we should fol­low suit in the inter­est of glob­al­iza­tion,” and Emakhadeni-Luveve leg­is­la­tor Descent Bajila added ​“The exis­tence of the death penal­ty in our statutes is a sign of our lack of con­fi­dence in our cor­rec­tion­al sys­tem. If we improve our cor­rec­tion­al sys­tem, we will be able to cor­rect all offend­ers.” The bill was referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee on November 16, accord­ing to Veritas, a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion in Zimbabwe. 

Currently, Zimbabwe has 62 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers. Earlier in March, par­lia­ment passed a ​“Patriotic Bill” which pre­scribed the death penal­ty as pos­si­ble pun­ish­ment for cit­i­zens whose activ­i­ties ​“will­ful­ly dam­age the sov­er­eign­ty and nation­al inter­est of Zimbabwe,” includ­ing boy­cotts, sanc­tions, and any act con­sid­ered ​“sub­ver­sion” by the state. President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who was pre­vi­ous­ly on death-row, is a well-known pro­po­nent of abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and in 2018 com­mut­ed death sen­tences for those who had spent more than 10 years on death row.